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User blog:Jeff Schrembs/Aloha from Hawaii
Aloha from Hawaii was the first TV show to be broadcast "worldwide" by satellite. The broadcast aired live via satellite on January 14, 1973. The concert occurred in Hawaii at the Honolulu International Center (HIC) in Honolulu (now known as the Neal S. Blaisdell Center). The show aired in over 40 countries across Asia and Europe (who received the telecast the next day, also in primetime). Despite the satellite innovation it was not broadcast in the United States until April 4, 1973 (the concert took place the same day as Super Bowl VII). There is much debate about the actual viewing audience ranging from between 1 and 1.5 billion. The backstory includes the fact that on July 8, 1972, inspired by a recent visit made by U.S. President Richard Nixon to China a few months earlier, Colonel Parker formally announced that there would be a worldwide satellite broadcast from Hawaii. Colonel Parker made a reference that since Elvis was in demand worldwide that this would be a chance for the entire world to see Elvis perform "live". A footnote about this is that Elvis never knew that Colonel Parker was an illegal alien and feared that he would be discovered and prosecuted and/or deported. Hence, Colonel Parker never allowed Elvis to perform outside of the United States except for a brief period where Elvis performed in Canada. The fact that Colonel Parker was an illegal alien only came to light after Elvis died and during the lawsuit, which was settled, in which Elvis' Estate sued Colonel Parker alleging that Colonel Parker cheated Elvis out of millions of dollars. Initially Colonel Parker said that the concert would take place in either October or November 1972 but this date was changed to early 1973 after MGM showed concern about it clashing with the release of their documentary film entitled "Elvis on Tour" (which was Elvis' second concert documentary with the first being the critically acclaimed "Elvis That's The Way It Is"). Colonel Parker held another press conference on September 4, 1972 in Las Vegas to confirm that the concert, now titled Aloha From Hawaii, would be broadcast on January 14, 1973. Two weeks after the Las Vegas press conference Colonel Parker received a letter from the Honolulu Advertiser columnist Eddie Sherman who had read in news accounts that there would be no charge for admission to the concert providing that a charitable donation was given to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. In the letter Eddie Sherman suggested to Parker that, as Presley had recorded and was still performing the song "I'll Remember You" which was written by Kui Lee and was a great hit in Hawaii. Sadly, Kui Lee had died in 1966 and Colonel Parker agreed to publicize the charity and set a goal of $ 25,000.00. Elvis actually raised $75,000.00 which was an incredible sum of money in 1973. Producer-director Marty Pasetta had attended one of Presley's concerts at Long Beach in mid-November, and found it to be "boring" and lacking in any physical excitement. He approached Parker with ideas about the broadcast, including a runway that led out from the stage so Presley could get closer to his audience. Parker insisted that the ideas were useless, and that Presley would agree that they were useless. Pasetta, however, decided to approach Presley about the ideas anyway and was pleasantly surprised to find that he would be happy to do whatever Pasetta felt was best for the show. One other condition was that Elvis was asked to lose 25 pounds (which he did to the detriment of his own health). Elvis performed three shows over November 17 and 18 in Honolulu, the dates originally planned for the satellite broadcast as well as gave a press conference on November 20. Elvis arrived via helicopter on January 9, 1973 to begin rehearsals. Elvis was pleased to learn of the success of "Elvis On Tour" and the fact that it was nominated for a Golden Globe. Rehearsals were held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village while the main set was being constructed. Elvis started taping the concert on January 12 rehearsal concert just in case anything went wrong with the satellite during the actual broadcast (fortunately nothing did). Elvis debuted his (infamous) white "American Eagle" jumpsuit, complete with two capes one was full length and the other was waist length, both were designed by Bill Belew. Elvis opted to performed an array of his recent and prior recordings such as: "Steamroller Blues", "See See Rider", "Early Morning Rain", "Burning Love", "Blue Suede Shoes", "A Big Hunk o' Love", "Suspicious Minds", "Can't Help Falling in Love", the Beatles' "Something", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "It's Over", "Welcome to my World", "I'll Remember You" and "What Now My Love". Interestingly, after the concert had finished and the audience members had left the building, Elvis recorded five songs on stage to be aired during the United States airing of the show. Each of these songs are present in the "Elvis On Tour" VHS and DVD video releases Category:Blog posts